2G scam: CBI seeks another 6 months for probe

The CBI has sought another six months from the Supreme Court to investigate the alleged 2G spectrum scam.

CBI has told the Supreme Court that it needed time to reach any definite conclusion on the role of the various players involved and till then it will not be possible for the PM to give his sanction for the prosecution of the Telecom Minister.

In January 2008, 2G spectrum was given to operators at a throwaway price of Rs. 1,658 crore for pan-India licences on a first-come-first-served basis.

Prashant Bhushan, who filed the petition in the SC asking for a probe in the alleged scam, argued that there was apprehension about the impartiality of the CBI probe. Citing the CAG report, Bhushan argued that the scam may run up to Rs. 1,39,652 crores  against the earlier estimates of Rs. 70,000 crores.

Arguing for the CBI, Solicitor General Gopal Subramanium said that there will be a fair, impartial and thorough investigation. Pleading for an extension, he added that a number of agencies like the CBI, Enforcement Directorate and the IT department have to coordinate with each other and the investigation may not even be restricted to India.

3 dead as C'garh Naxals welcome new CRPF chief by blowing up ITBP jeep

The Maoists in Chhattisgarh expanded their target base on Friday when for the first time the Left extremists attacked and killed three personnel of the Indo Tibetan Border Police (ITBP).

The Maoists blew up a jeep these men were travelling in while passing the Kahoka village in Manpur. The area is 120 kilometres from the district headquarters Rajnandangaon, Chhattisgarh.

Incidentally, newly appointed CRPF Director General K Vijay Kumar is on a two-day visit to Chhattisgarh at the moment taking stock of the situation in the state where 14 companies of CRPF are deployed in anti-Naxalite operations, particularly in hyper-sensitive areas of the Bastar division.

Rajnandgaon district Superintendent of Police Badri Narayan Meena said: "The incident took place before noon when Naxalites apparently triggered a landmine, targetting a jeep in which the ITBP personnel were travelling."

Congress' Karnataka legislators brought to Lonavala

All the Congress legislators in Karnataka were brought to a resort in Maharashtra's Lonavala town Friday to prevent poaching by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), ahead of the confidence vote by the B.S. Yeddyurappa government.

The 73-strong group of Congress legislators, accompanied by several party workers, came from Bangalore to Pune around 2 a.m. by a Jet Airways flight.

Pervez Musharraf confirms India’s claim against Pakistan: MEA

India on Wednesday said former Pakistan president Pervez Musharraf’s admission that his country was training terrorists to fight against India in Kashmir is what it had been saying over years.

Reacting to General Musharraf’s reported statement that Pakistan trained militant underground groups to fight against India in Kashmir, the official spokesperson of Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) stated that “this is a widely accepted fact and General Musharraf’s assertion only confirms the veracity of what we have been repeatedly saying over the years.

Karnataka: 20 MLAs withdraw support after 4 ministers dropped

Bangalore, Oct 6 (IBNS): The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government in Karnataka on Wednesday plunged into a grave crisis as 20 MLAs, including party legislators, withdrawing support to the government, hours after Chief Minister BS Yeddyurappa dropped four dissident ministers.

Reports quoting rebel leader PM Narendraswamy, who was dropped from the ministry, claimed that 20 MLAs have submitted a letter to Governor HR Bharadwaj, declaring their withdrawal of support to the government.

Ayodhya: VHP lays claim to entire 67-acre plot

NEW DELHI: While it initially hailed the Ayodhya verdict as a Hindu victory which had paved the way for a Ram temple, the VHP has now turned around by describing the same judgment as completely uncalled for as none of the parties involved had asked for a division of the disputed land. 

Stating that the party will settle for nothing less than a grand temple, VHP leader Ashok Singhal on Tuesday told TOI that allotment of land also to Nirmohi Akhara and Sunni Waqf Board was wrong and the temple could come up only on the entire 67-acre plot of land. 

"The court has allotted 3,500 square feet of land each to all the parties involved. This is not enough to accommodate even the garba griha of the grand temple which is proposed to be built at the site. We are confident that the High Court ruling will be set aside by the Supreme Court," Singhal said. 

Despite fears being expressed in public that talk about a grand temple will only vitiate the atmosphere, Singhal maintained that Ram Janmabhoomi Nyas will not settle for a lesser structure. 

After the initial euphoria over the judgment, which went on to justify the birthplace of Lord Ram as exactly the place under the central dome of the demolished Babri mosque, the VHP seems to be slowly hardening its stand again. 

Making it evident that the VHP was not on the same page as Nirmohi Akhara on the issue of proposed temple, Singhal brushed aside statements by Akhara leaders suggesting that they were ready for a respectable structure for Lord Ram instead of a "bhavya mandir". 

"There is no question of settling for anything less than a grand temple. In any case, we believe Nirmohi Akhara should not have been given any share in the disputed land. We want a temple which is similar in size and grandeur to the Akshardham temple in Delhi which is spread over 70 acres," Singhal said, adding that only the VHP-affiliated Ram Janmabhoomi Nyas could build the temple at the spot as it had that authority from Ram Lalla himself. The Nyas has announced that it will approach Supreme Court against the verdict. 

The VHP also did not sound hopeful about renewed attempts to solve the issue out of court. "The Congress is talking about an out-of-court settlement but we are not sure if all parties will agree," added Singhal.

CWC meet after Ayodhya verdict

New Delhi, Oct 5 : The Congress Working Committee on Tuesday discussed the party's strategy and future course in the aftermath of the Allahabad High Court verdict on the Ayodhya title suit case, party sources said.

The CWC, party's supreme decision making body, was meeting here for the first time after the Sept 30 verdict on the case.

Congress chief Sonia Gandhi and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh are among the top leaders participating in the meet which is also expected to discuss the situation in the Kashmir Valley.

The party is expected to come out with a strategy on the Ayodhya issue at a time when parties like Samajwadi Party and LJP are trying to win support of Muslims on the matter.

The two parties have expressed their disappointment over the verdict.

The CWC is also expected to underline its policy aiming at elections in some states, including Bihar.

Oil-for-food scam: Supreme Court dismisses Natwar Singh's plea

New Delhi, Oct 5 : The Supreme Court on Tuesday dismissed the petitions filed by former Union Minister Natwar Singh seeking supply of documents of Volcker and R S Pathak Committees which had probed his alleged role in Iraq oil-for-food scam.

A bench comprising Justices B Sudarshan Reddy and S S Nijjar said the petitions seeking documents are delaying tactics on the part of Natwar Singh and his son Jagat Singh.

The bench ordered for the expeditious disposal of the proceedings before the Enforcement Directorate (ED) and said that no adjournments should be given on unreasonable grounds.

They had filed an appeal against a Delhi High Court decision rejecting their plea.

Earlier, the High Court had dismissed the petition of the former External Affairs Minister and his son embroiled in Iraq's oil-for-food scam for direction to the ED to provide them with all documents related to the scam.

The court had said it is not illegal on the part of the government not to provide them all the documents.

The scam led to the ouster of Natwar Singh from the Cabinet in 2004 for his alleged role.

The Paul Volcker Committee was set up by the United Nations in April 2004 to probe corruption and fraud in its oil-for-food programme in Iraq, in which Singh's name allegedly figured as a beneficiary

Cong to wait for SC decision on Ayodhya

New Delhi, Oct 5 : The Congress on Tuesday decided to wait for the final decision of the Supreme Court on the Ayodhya title suit verdict by a high court before reaching at a stance.


The Congress Working Committee on Tuesday discussed the party's strategy and future course in the aftermath of the Allahabad High Court verdict on the Ayodhya title suit case.

"We respect the judicial process with respect to the Ayodhya verdict," Janardhan Dwivedi said, informing about the meeting's outcome.

"We must wait for the final decision of the apex couirt as and when appeal is filed," he added.

Congress chief Sonia Gandhi and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh are among the top leaders who participated in the meet which also discussed the situation in the Kashmir Valley.

Treading cautiously on the communal minefield, a three-member Lucknow bench of the Allahabad High Court on Thursday (September 30) passed a verdict upholding the Hindu claim that the disputed site is the birthplace of Lord Rama but ruled that the land would be divided into three parts with one third going to the Muslims along with one third for the Hindus.

Rejecting the Sunni Waqf Board and Nirmohi Akhara's title suit, the Lucknow bench of Allahabad High Court on Thursday said Hindu deity Lord Ram was born indeed on the disputed Ayodhya site, bringing a temporary closure on the 60-year-old dispute since the judgement can now be challenged in the Supreme Court

India will soon start to outpace China: Economist

WASHINGTON: India will soon start to outpace China, thanks to a young and growing workforce and its "much-derided democracy" says The Economist.

The cover story on "How India's growth will outpace China's" in its latest issue attributes "India's surprising economic miracle" largely to its private sector saying, "the country's state may be weak, but its private companies are strong."

Despite the poor headlines generated in the run up to the Commonwealth games, "India is doing rather well," the internationally regarded magazine said noting, "Its economy is expected to expand by 8.5 percent this year."

"It has a long way to go before it is as rich as China - the Chinese economy is four times bigger- but its growth rate could overtake China's by 2013, if not before.

"Some economists think India will grow faster than any other large country over the next 25 years. Rapid growth in a country of 1.2 billion people is exciting, to put it mildly," it said.

Citing demography as one of the two reasons why India will soon start to outpace China, the magazine noted "China's workforce will shortly start ageing; in a few years' time, it will start shrinking."

"That's because of its one-child policy - an oppressive measure that no Indian government would get away with."

"India is now blessed with a young and growing workforce. Its dependency ratio - the proportion of children and old people to working-age adults - is one of the best in the world and will remain so for a generation," it said.

India's economy will benefit from this "demographic dividend", which has powered many of Asia's economic miracles.

"The second reason for optimism is India's much-derided democracy," said The Economist noting, "Indian capitalism is driven by millions of entrepreneurs all furiously doing their own thing.

"Since the early 1990s, when India dismantled the "licence raj" and opened up to foreign trade, Indian business has boomed."

"Ideas flow easily around India, since it lacks China's culture of secrecy and censorship. That, plus China's rampant piracy, is why knowledge-based industries such as software love India but shun the Middle Kingdom,"

"Given the choice between doing business in China or India, most foreign investors would probably pick China, The Economist said.

Maoists strike again, 7 security men injured

Gadchiroli (Maharashtra): A day after killing at least four police personnel, Maoists again struck in the dense forests of eatern Maharashtra's Gadchiroli district on Tuesday morning and injured seven security personnel, police said.

According to reports reaching the district headquarters here, a police van was ambushed and blown up with a mine near Tallewada, around 130 km from here, said Chandan Bavne, an official in the Anti-Maoist Squad control room.

At least seven security personnel were injured in the landmine blast. They have been rushed to hospitals in the vicinity, Bavne said. The condition of at least two is reported to be critical.

The incident came barely 15 hours after a group of Maoists ripped a police jeep near Permili village and left at least five security personnel dead Monday evening.

A fierce gunfight was continuing in the forests between the security forces and the Maoists, details of which were not immediately available.

Meanwhile, the bodies of four of the security personnel killed in Monday's attack were brought to the district headquarters, he added.

The personnel were: Central Reserve Police Force inspector Nivrutti Jadhav (45), CRPF constable Anand Patil (22), and state police sub-inspectors Shashi More (31) and Mahendra Nalpul (35).

Two others who were injured in the attack, including a police personnel and a police driver, are reported to be serious and undergoing treatment, Gadchiroli police control said.

Top officials of the district police, the CRPF and Anti-Maoist Squad have been stationed in the area to help counter the resurgence of Maoist unrest in the region.

Government submits affidavit in HC on Puri temple security

CUTTACK (Orissa): The Orissa government has told the High Court that the report of a judicial probe into the stampede at Puri Jagannath Temple during the Nagarjuna Vesa in 1998 had been lost and a search produced no result. 

In an affidavit, the state government informed the court yesterday that the report of another judicial probe, ordered in 2006, to find out who were responsible for the loss of the earlier report had been accepted by the government and that steps were being taken for follow-up action on the basis of recommendations made by it. 

The government's response came in reply to a PIL filed in the court by a socio-cultural organisation Maitree Sansad way back in 2003 in which it had questioned poor law and order and security measures at the 12th century shrine. 

Following death of six persons in the stampede at the temple in 1998, Justice J M Mohapatra was appointed to conduct an inquiry. The judicial Commission had submitted its report to the government. 

But the government in an affidavit said the report could not be traced despite a thorough search, said the petitioner-advocate Ajoy Mohanty. 

The government also informed that a subsequent judicial commission, set up in November, 2006 and headed by Justice P K Mohanty to find out the person (s) responsible for the loss of earlier report, was in the hands of the government.

A phone application that threatens security

London: A cheap mobile phone application that can track the precise location of passenger aircraft in the sky can be a serious terrorist threat, security experts have claimed and called for its immediate ban.

The Plane Finder AR application, developed by a British firm for the Apple iPhone and Google’s Android, allows users to point their phone at the sky and see the position, height and speed of nearby aircraft.

It also shows the airline, flight number, departure point, destination and even the likely course-the features which could be used to target an aircraft with a surface-to-air missile, or to direct another plane on to a collision course, the ‘Daily Mail’ reported.

The programme, sold for just 1.79 pounds in the online Apple store, has now been labelled an ‘aid to terrorists’ by security experts and the US Department of Homeland Security is also examining how to protect airliners.

The new application works by intercepting the so-called Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcasts (ADS-B) transmitted by most passenger aircraft to a new satellite tracking system that supplements or, in some countries, replaces radar.

British and European air traffic control systems have not yet adopted the technology but it is being fitted in all new aircraft, which now constantly broadcast their positions.

After the September 11 attacks in America in 2001, a senior Federal Aviation Administration official warned that ADS-B technology could be used by terrorists.

He wrote: “Broadcasting the identity and location of aircraft… would open the door for a terrorist to attack a specific aircraft or airline.”

The firm behind the app, Pinkfroot, uses a network of aircraft enthusiasts in Britain and abroad, who are equipped with ADS-B receivers costing around 200 pounds to intercept the information from aircraft and send it to a central
database.

Conservative MP Patrick Mercer, former chairman of the Parliamentary Counter Terrorism sub-committee, said: “Anything that makes it easier for our enemies to find targets is madness. The Government must look at outlawing the marketing
of such equipment.”

However, the Hampshire-based firm has gone one step further, marketing a so-called ‘Augmented Reality’ application because users can point a phones camera at the sky and see the precise position of aircraft superimposed on the horizon.

The firm claims more than 2,000 people have downloaded Plane Finder AR from iTunes since its launch last month.

Ramalinga Raju reaches CBI court for questioning

Hyderabad: Satyam Founder and ex-chairman Ramalinga Raju has reached the CBI court in Hyderabad for questioning.

He was required to appear before the CBI daily as per his bail conditions but was exempted from it as long as he was in hospital. He was released from hospital on Saturday after being treated for Hepatitis C.

CBI had issued a notice to Raju on Monday asking him to appear before it. Raju was discharged from Nizam’s Institute of Medical Sciences on Saturday after receiving treatment for Hepatitis C. He has to appear before the CBI as per the conditions of bail granted earlier by High Court of Andhra Pradesh.

Sources said that the questioning would revolve around the alleged funds diversion to some of the foreign countries from which CBI is awaiting replies.

The restated accounts presented by Mahindra Satyam indicated possible diversion of funds aggregating USD 41 million so far from the proceeds of the ads, which were listed on the NYSE in May 2001.

The forensic audit revealed that diversion of funds possibly include payments to banks worth USD 22 million, payments of USD 9 million to other entities as well as cash outflows to unidentified beneficiaries to the tune of USD 10 million.

Recently, CBI had filed a petition in the Supreme Court seeking cancellation of bail to Raju and nine others. The Apex court subsequently issued notice to Raju to file a reply before October 19.

Kashmir Violence: Four Injured As Violence Broke In Shopian District

About four people were injured when security forces fired at protesters in Shopian district of South Kashmir on Sunday. The security forces were reportedly looking for militants hiding in the region when the violence broke.

 

“Army cordoned off Nagbal after getting information about militants hiding there. Some miscreants instigated people after which the mob turned violent and pelted stones,” Shopian SP, Shahid Mehraj was quoted as saying.

 

According to some unofficial reports, the violence broke as the police started beating people during the identification parade. The police forces denied such allegations.

 

“But the situation got out of control and the soldiers had to fire in self-defence,” Shopian SP Shahid Meraj added.

 

The Shopian village, which is located from about 55 km in Srinagar, was under curfew. And few other places surrounding Shopian were also under curfew on Sunday. However, according to police sources, the curfew was relaxed in Srinagar and Handwara in the afternoon.